Father's Day

Happy Father's Day one day early. I'm writing today because I doubt I have time tomorrow. I wish my Dad were still here to wish him a happy day. Dad died in 2001, and I still miss him. There have been many times over the last six years I would have liked to receive his advice, as crazy as that was sometimes.

My Dad was a bricklayer who wound up owning a catfish restaurant. While he and my mother rarely took my siblings and me to church when we were kids, I owe him alot. Primarily, I owe him the value of a hard day's work and the reward of a good afternoon's nap!

SBC

As expected Frank Page was re-elected without opposition yesterday at the SBC in San Antonio. I've gotten to know Dr. Page slightly in the year I've been at North Greenville. He is the man for the hour in our convention.

Jim Richards of Texas was elected 1st VP. Some see this vote as an opportunity for the "old-guard" to reestablish itself. Perhaps, but since Richards is executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas he had a home-field advantage, much as Page had last year in Charlotte. It will be the presidential vote next year that will determine whether Page's election was just a blip on the screen or something more substantial.

Sermons On-Line

Some of you may be interested my Sunday sermons are now available on-line:

http://www.fairviewgreer.net/page2619.php

We're experimenting with this right now so be patient.

When God Comes to Church

I've just finished reading Steve Gaines' new book, When God Comes to Church. Gaines, the pastor of Bellevue Baptist in Memphis, writes that what churches need is not a reformation of theology, but a reformation of worship. I agree.

The book primarily deals with worship but is also greatly concerned about revival. Some of the salient quotes are:

• You haven't had a great Sunday until God shows up!
• Definition of revival: the glory of God filling the house of God.
• One of the reasons so many people are turned off from the idea of church these days is that it is all so explainable.
• The motto of some churches is "Come as you are; leave as you came."
• Some Christians talk urgently about getting God back into government. Others talk about the need to get God back into the public schools. What I'm most concerned about is getting God back into our churches.
• Worship services should not be designed primarily to attract people. Rather, worship services should be designed to attract the manifest presence of God, and He in turn will attract the people.
• Before any talk about doing, let's talk about being.

These are just some of the nuggets you'll find in this book. My favorite chapter is "What Attracts the Presence of God." Gaines deals with what essentials must be found in a church for God's presence to be real and powerful. Those essentials are: sincere and passionate prayer, tithing, fasting, repentance, corporate worship, and unity.

He writes a great chapter on music. Of course everyone knows this is the silly subject that is getting so many church folks upset today. Every music minister knows the tension of trying to please everyone. Gaines advocates a 50/50 split between the old and new [something we try to do at Fairview with varying degrees of success I might add].

A great quote from the chapter: "Can we all please understand that church was never meant to be your personal jukebox? Everybody has 165 other hours in the week to pick out just the songs you personally like. God to your nearest Christian music supplier and load up on whatever you want. Play it nonstop from Monday to Saturday. The new technology of the iPod makes this even easier. You can select, download, and then replay your handpicked favorites as often as you want. But in the house of God, we have a different agenda. We're offering up praise and adoration for the pleasure of someone else."

Well said--if we want God's blessings we must understand that worship is not about us; it is about Him. I'm tired of people telling me what they like or don't like. It makes no difference what I like or dislike. The question about worship is what does God like and dislike?

This is an important read for those grappling with the idea of what true worship is all about. Gaines seems to be saying that real worship brings Holy Spirit revival. Amen! Let it be so.

I may blog on this more later.

Been A While

Sorry that it has been so long since I've posted. Life has been terribly busy this second semester at North Greenville University. Between classes and doing the interim pastor gig at Fairview Baptist in Greer, I've met my self behind and ahead of myself. My spring and summer terms are now over and maybe I can catch up on a few things of interest as the June and July unfold.

We just finished Vacation Bible School at Fairview. I'm not sure what our final enrollment was, but our average attendance was something like 255. We had at least 18 kids saved! What a blessing. I still believe VBS is the best opportunity for evangelism a church can be involved in. Besides, it reaches the most important generation--the next one!

Mohler on Homosexuality

Al Mohler has created some buzz on his recent writings on homosexuality. I believe he is essentially correct. Here his latest blog entry.

http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=901

NCAA

Lesa and I always go at each other in the NCAA tourney. She knows nothing about this but always picks well! She got me on Thursday and Friday, but in the end I know that I have her. Seven of her Sweet 16 are out!! I have 13 of my 16 still in!!! Texas disappointed us both. All four of our Final 4 are still in but I have to admit that I'm worried about Ohio State. They could very well lose to Tennessee. We both have North Carolina winning it all, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Kansas cuts down the nets. I just hope its not Florida again. I hate Gators!!

The Country Ten Commandments

1. There is only one God

2. No false gods

3. No hankerin' for other's stuff

4. No cuss'n

5. Gather on Sunday

6. No killin'

7. Mind your Ma and Pa

8. Cheatin' is forbidden

9. Ya'll don't steal

10. No white lies or gossipin'

I like these, don't you?

Something to Ponder

Al Mohler has a fascinating entry that Christians need to think deeply about.

http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=891

He's right--the perfect ethical storm is brewing.

Nail Obituary

I mentioned earlier that Lesa's uncle, Rev. Bill Nail, died the other day. His obituary shares something of his half-century as a Southern Baptist pastor. Once again, I believe that we should honor the soliders of the cross who pass on.

http://www.webfh.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=116367&fh_id=10801&s_id=691F0591BDCA60B1B3C1149313DED56D

Response to Cameron

As you might expect, biblical scholars are challenging James Cameron's documentary set to air on Sunday. Ben Witherington is featured in the following story:

http://www.playfuls.com/news_0005642_Scholars_Prepare_Systematic_Debunking_of_Tomb_of_Jesus.html

I saw "Larry King Live" the other night and Al Mohler did a masterful job as usual in articulating the orthodox response to all this nonsense.

Here We Go Again!

We must be getting close to Easter. James Cameron is going to "sink" Christianity.

http://www.filmstalker.co.uk/archives/2007/02/james_cameron_reveals_remains.html

Don't you get tired of this every year? I do.

Fairview Website

Several of you have asked by e-mail about the website of the church where I am currently serving as interim pastor. Here it is:

http://www.fairviewgreer.net/index.php

You might even get a glimpse of me in a couple of pics.

Bill Nail

I wanted to write just a short piece on the passing today of Lesa's uncle, Rev. Bill Nail. Bill served many years as a pastor, often as a church planter. His most effective ministries were in Michigan, during the days when Southern Baptists were just catching hold in that state. He was a go-getter, and I would have liked to observed him during the height of his ministry.

The old soldiers who paved the way for guys like me are going on to their eternal reward every day. We should learn a few things from men like Bill. First, their devotion to the Lord; that is obvious. Second, their devotion to their church. They loved their people. These men were not CEO types. They lived to serve the people, and they often sacrificed a lot to do that. Third, their devotion to the SBC. Bill was a denominationalist. We're losing that more every day, and the convention is reaping the results of it, I'm sad to say. I hope there will be a renewal of devotion to the convention that Bill and others like him spent their lives building.

Bill has enjoyed today a great reunion in heaven with members of his family who have gone before. I'll always be grateful for knowing him. Lesa is a bit sad today because this is the last one of her uncles and aunts to go on to Heaven. Bill was her mother's younger brother.

His funeral will be Wednesday in Kennett. I'm sure he's heard a "Well Done" from the one who he has served all these years!

Spiritual Warfare

We were blessed at Fairview this weekend to have Dr. Chuck Lawless of Southern Seminary to conduct a Spiritual Warfare conference on Saturday and to preach in our morning service on Sunday. If you ever have a chance to hear him, take the opportunity. Some of the quotes that I wrote down from this weekend are:

• We do not wrestle against flesh and blood. Thus our enemies are not other people.
• If a church has no strategy for equipping new believers, why would God entrust that church with new babes in Christ?"
• The Christian life is a life of joy but not without conflict.
• Are we a church that threatens the enemy?

And this one was an "Oh Me" moment: "The reason some new believers' fire goes out is that they hang around us [meaning other Christians] too much."

In Sunday's service, Dr. Lawless preached an outstanding sermon on quote four above. His text was Acts 19, but I'll leave that for another entry. I will say that I've seldom seen a work of God greater than when the invitation was given in the morning service today. God moved in an unusually powerful way. There is no question that this weekend, planned many months ago, was used by God to do the business in our church that needed to be done. To Him be the glory!

Women Professors

I'm sure you're aware that Southwestern Seminary refused tenure to a Hebrew professor, Sheri Klouda, simply because she is a she. Using the Baptist Faith & Message and its prohibition of women pastors as the reason, Klouda was forced out at SWBTS and is now teaching at an institution in Indiana.

I'm sorry this happened. I know Sheri slightly; we were in the Ph.D. program at SWBTS at the same time. She is a highly competent, gifted teacher. I cannot see how we can broaden the BF&M tenet on pastoral leadership and apply it to the seminary classroom. I've sat in classrooms, and I teach in classrooms. Classrooms ain't churches. Students know it. Profs know it.

While I too have the conviction that women are not to serve as senior pastors; I believe women should be allowed to teach on the theology faculty of our seminaries. I appreciate the trustees of our institutions as well as our administrations, but I think they're wrong on this one.

Naps

Well my Dad was right. New research on napping will keep you alive. Researchers tracked more than 20,000 healthy Greek adults, and those who napped three times weekly for about a half-hour had a 37% lower risk of dying from heart attacks or other heart problems than those who did not nap [Orlando Sentinel].

My Dad made sure his nap was uninterrupted each day. If you woke him up, you were dead pure and simple. I've taken his cue and try to take a nap a couple of times a week myself. On Sunday for sure and any other time I can work one in.

God knew we needed rest. Didn't He command a Sabbath rest? So what if I want to do it more than once a week. I'll live longer!!

SC Winter

Well it is moving out today, but here is what a SC winter looks like!

Work of the Church

Since I'm home with time on my hands, I've been thinking about the work of the church. I think I've boiled it down to four areas:

• Attract--this of course is evangelism. We must attract the lost to Christ and His church. How do we do this? I think the best way is by lavishly loving others, displaying Christ's character. Truly His character is contagious.
• Assimilate--once someone is born into the kingdom of God and becomes part of the church, what then? They must be assimilated into the fellowship. The best way here is to become part of small-group ministry. Call it Sunday School or cell-group or whatever, my experience is that when someone becomes part of a smaller group in the church, he/she begins to feel more at home and comfortable. Small groups must learn to take initiative to do whatever it takes to make assimilation successful.
• Develop--there must be a thorough and well-thought out/prayed over process to develop believers in the faith. How do people get from point A to point B in discipleship? Most churches, unfortunately have not thought this process through. How do people learn the basic building-blocks of discipleship? Every church is different but every church must have a plan!
• Deploy--as believers develop they must be deployed into service. Every Christian has been saved to serve. Again, a church must have a definite plan to move believers beyond the pew into the real work of the church. If not most will not serve and the few that will become too weary in their well-doing.

Of course, these four areas are not new, but I believe these principles are sound and should become the church's "Master-Plan." Everything the church does should be planned, coordinated, and then evaluated according to these four principles. What does not enhance these four should be abandoned.

Winter!

Well winter finally arrived early this morning. It has been snowing since about 3am, and freezing rain is now falling. School is out everywhere, so we're all home enjoying the day off! We missed the first couple of weather events but not this one. It had to happen sooner or later. The folks at church last night were concerned that the freezing rain would cause the same kind of massive power outages as the ice storm of December 05. We'll pray that won't happen!